I AM A DALEK, RES CASKET, PIRATE LOOP, SICK BUILDING

Three good Tenth Doctor novels! Yeah! Yes, they are! That's right! I Am A Dalek. That's why I hate DW so much. No, just kidding. That's the title of the short read. The first one I think. The only one I liked the idea so much that I could read or bother to find out about. The Cybermen one I started to read and it was awful. Speaking of awful those DEATH LEGACY books are downright terrible, horribly written. I AM A DALEK is filled with great ideas including a human Dalek, some wonderfully tense action, and a highly emotional moment with a man named Frank. I'm still not sure Frank fully survives the ordeal but time is changed for him. It's a good read and some real tense action aboard a bus (it can happen! only not in POD) and an archelogical dig. There's also a link to EVIL OF THE DALEKS...and a deal with a Dalek. Truly different and I didn't know how it would play out.

PEACEMAKER-finally a wild west story. Yes, with an alien. But it's a good one. The setting is well described. The cover is great. There are a ton of western cliches but all done within the alien framework story and all seem quite fresh. There's another young man (16 I think) who I was sure wasn't going to make it, Nathan. He sort of becomes the second companion and it gets a bit SLEEPY HOLLOW but that's a good thing. There's a bar, a mine, horses, horse killings, fires tht burn down a farm and a good framwork for the entire story. There's lots of action and a really creepy alien force/villain, the Clade. Nice job! A good read.

RESURRECTION CASKET -This Rose novel is a better pirate story than PIRATE LOOP although I found most of the Martha novels are pretty good, better than the others and cerrtainly not boring like the Doctor alone books. CASKET is more like TREASURE ISLAND IN OUTER SPACE (that's the title of a real mini series from Italy I believe and with Ernest Borgnine and a kid in a future setting on other planets and it's pretty good but this is better). There's as in most of these novels, a juvenile lead usually a boy, and here it 's a boy (namaed Jimm as if to drive it home that this is a Jim Hawkins homage). There's also a wild cliffhanger with a big giant bear of an alien who wants to kill the Doctor or rather doens't want to but has to thanks to its being programmed or forced to. It's apologizing as it menaces him! I can't recall the climax to this but I"m sure it was exciting as these climaxes always are but as a Treasure Island homage, it's pretty good. And loaded with dangerous aliens and fun and death! Just like DW should be. CASKET's end PIRATE LOOP's end is bit wonky now that I've reviwed it and with things making choices if they want to stay in a piorate loop or not, lviing forever but wtih nothing getting done. An odd ending. Anyway CASKET'S good, PIRATE not so much.

SICK BUILDING: okay I'm doing a fourth. I like this set up, it's very snowy on this planet and with dangerous wild life outside, lions or tigers and a boy and family living alone here, the Doc and Martha have their job cut out for them. Atmospheric and cold! There's a lot of stuff going on here too and all of it is worth the energy to read it: horned bear, great gaping strange void, a house that is a dream house that won't let you upset it or its family, a strange woman, etc. And a young boy named Solin. It all works out and is an unsettling book. And some things are saved by a burp.Honest. It all makes sense. I think!

The Tenth Doctor books have been hit or miss, but mostly hits with me. The Torchwood books are really good too, some are better than the show. I really enjoyed the TW book, Trace Memory. I wish they filmed that script.

"I collect stars, but I keep them in the sky because I just don't have the space at home." - Warren Ellis